Stumbled upon an old fantasy book with isekai

[udin-san]

I was looking for a book to read when I found a fantasy book from 1984 titled The River of Dancing Gods by Jack L. Chalker. I found this by pure luck; I've never heard of the author before. A quick search told me that he is a prolific American science fiction and fantasy author of over 60 works. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2005 with an unfinished novel and more in planning.

Anyway.

I searched the synopsis and here's what I found on goodreads :

Life had not been kind to Joe and Marge. Now, according to the stranger who met them on a road that wasn't there, they were due to die in nineteen minutes, eighteen seconds. But the ferryboat that waited to take them across the Sea of Dreams could bring them to a new and perhaps better life.

There lay a world where fairies still danced by moonlight and sorcery became real. Joe could become a mighty-thewed barbarian warrior. Marge could be beautiful and find her magical self.

And it was even as Throckmorton P. Ruddygore, the strange wizard, had promised. But there was a great deal more, as they soon learned.

This was a world where Hell still strove to win its ancient war and demon princes sent men into battles of dark magic. It was a world where Joe and Marge must somehow help prevent the coming of Armageddon.

Doesn't that sound like isekai to you? So, I read the first chapter and true enough, it is in fact an isekai story! This is personally the earliest isekai story that I've ever read (I've never read Alice in Wonderland). What's funny to me is that instead of a truck sending someone, here a trucker is the one that got sent to another world to save the world from imminent destruction. That got me interested so I decided to give it a try and see where the story takes me.

I think this is going to be my first ever fantasy novel. I've never read any before, even the popular ones like Harry Potter or Narnia. The only fiction books I've read aside from mangas and light novels are some Goosebumps, some The Three Investigators, some Sherlock Holmes, and Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.

 

[DarkeReises]

You have found the origin story of the Trucker of Truck-kun.

 

[udin-san]

You have found the origin story of the Trucker of Truck-kun.

My wording was a bit weird, I don't think that part has anything to do with the truck-kun trope
But now I'm curious, what's the trope maker of truck-kun?

 

[Cipiteca396]

My wording was a bit weird, I don't think that part has anything to do with the truck-kun trope
But now I'm curious, what's the trope maker of truck-kun?

Overworked Japanese Truckers falling asleep at the wheel and running over people. Frequently.

 

[Varstark]

The virgin isekai MC: Needs to be smacked around by a truck or criminal to be sent to another world / absolute pussy who was a loser on Earth / needs half a dozen cheat abilities to even scrape by and avoid tragedy / every decision is magically beneficial in some way / needs the hand of the author to pick up chicks but rarely even has sex / if things don't go their way, they flip the table in a tantrum and the genre turns to revenge porn / largely forgotten about once the seasons pass.

The chad classical katabasis MC: Willingly enters hell through an earthly door or across a river for a lover, family or friend / is either a god, demigod, royalty or otherwise something special / faces tragedy head on / will sometimes majorly screw up but carries on with life anyway / sometimes cheats Death itself / may or may not be married / may or may not impregnate several women anyway / hero of a myth that can tie together an entire civilisation for hundreds to thousands of years.

 

[TheTrinary]

Portal fantasy was extremely prolific in fantasy and sci / fi many decades ago. It was so popular in fact that it's still really hard to get a professional publishing deal on that type of story as it's seen as "overdone".

 

[udin-san]

Overworked Japanese Truckers falling asleep at the wheel and running over people. Frequently.

That's not what I meant about trope maker. This is. It's the story where the truck-kun trope originated from.
The origin story of the truck-kun is another story altogether, but still an interesting one to ponder about.

Maybe Truck-kun was a sentient entity; it had no driver. It cruised on a plane different from our own, but still connected. Its headlights were made of soul-guiding lantern, to guide a poor soul to a place where it needs them. It could feel in its core when a weeb was about to cross the road and he would then phase into the nearby road to do the job. After that, it vanished like a mirage without anyone noticing back to the astral plane, searching for another soul to guide.

...Or something like that I don't know.

 

[udin-san]

Portal fantasy was extremely prolific in fantasy and sci / fi many decades ago. It was so popular in fact that it's still really hard to get a professional publishing deal on that type of story as it's seen as "overdone".

Aha. So, there's a reason why isekai stories are popular nowadays; they have many similarities.

 

[Cipiteca396]

That's not what I meant about trope maker. This is. It's the story where the truck-kun trope originated from.
The origin story of the truck-kun is another story altogether, but still an interesting one to ponder about.

Maybe Truck-kun was a sentient entity; it had no driver. It cruised on a plane different from our own, but still connected. Its headlights were made of soul-guiding lantern, to guide a poor soul to a place where it needs them. It could feel in its core when a weeb was about to cross the road and he would then phase into the nearby road to do the job. After that, it vanished like a mirage without anyone noticing back to the astral plane, searching for another soul to guide.

...Or something like that I don't know.

If you're looking for the trope, it's here.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LookBothWays

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RunningOverThePlot

Unfortunately, I wasn't joking. The trope became so common in Japan because it kept happening in real life. It's a case of 'Art imitates life' rather than "Oh, that's a good idea, let's copy it!"
To clarify, asking for the Trope Maker in this case is like asking for the Trope Maker of Serial Killers.
If you mean the meme "Truck-Kun" itself, it's fanmade.

 

[udin-san]

Unfortunately, I wasn't joking. The trope became so common in Japan because it kept happening in real life.

That's interesting, I didn't know that. Anywhere I could read about that in more detail?

 

[Cipiteca396]

That's interesting, I didn't know that. Anywhere I could read about that in more detail?

Ha, no. I guess you could call it hearsay, since I don't remember at all. You would have just as much luck trying to google it.

That said, while I was doing a cursory google search, I found an article that listed Astro Boy as the Trope Maker. I don't agree, but you might find some validation from it.

 

[udin-san]

That said, while I was doing a cursory google search, I found an article that listed Astro Boy as the Trope Maker.

cmiiw Astro Boy started the story with the professor's son's death in an accident, that's why he made Astro Boy in his son's image. So, assuming it's the trope maker of Truck-kun, he was killed by a truck, right? But Astro Boy is not an isekai story

So far I assumed that the truck-kun trope only involved stories where the protagonist got sent into another world. If it also involved every stories that started with the protagonist got hit by a truck, then that changes everything.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Isekai pre-SAO is usually better than the one written afterwards, if we're using generalization.

They're still realistic and the event where the MC transported isn't as exaggerated compared to what actually happened in that world.

Back then transported into the other world isn't the main premise. It's the events and problem that happened in that world that actually important. And the world transporting event is just another method of transportation.

Plus the mindset of being transmigrator compared to locals isn't that much important. MC eventually forced to adapt and accept the new world as the world it live.

And it's Not just MC comparing between the world and use the MC old world knowledge as advantage like those locals know nothing.

MC is forced to learn and adapt the new world common sense and basic knowledge, and MC is probably nothing special to them except for some special power if MC has one. But it's nothing more than a tool for MC to make sure he's just unique, not OP.

MC personality and actions is the thing that matters the most.

And looking at Kurt Vonnegut's "shape of story" graph, MC happiness or Sadness graph didn't change that much when MC is transported to the other world. In fact, it may goes a little worse when the stuff of new world actually that bad, dangerous, and traumatic compared to the bad problems MC's old world.


Overall, those pre-SAO Isekai Only uses transporting to the other world as a mean to start the story or as how MC is able to get to the damn place.

While these days Isekai sells more on the "being on the otherworld" while ignoring what actually happened and how it affects MC.

Thanks for reading my short minded, generalized and biased reply.

 

[TheMangaGod]

If I remember correctly one of the first fantasy/science fiction book was both written by a woman AND is an isekai. Although it's apparently not particularly good from what I've been told... I guess it was something about an alternate world found in the artic? Not sure...